


hostage

by lovinglied



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Artist Keith, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Oblivious Pining, Post-College AU, Song fic, billie eilish - hostage, photographer lance, theyre both afraid of love, will add characters tags as they appear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 18:05:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13276962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovinglied/pseuds/lovinglied
Summary: gold’s fake and real love hurtsbut nothing hurts when i’m alone.and you’re with meand we’re alone.





	hostage

**Author's Note:**

> please please Please if u havent, go listen to hostage by billie eilish. im basing this whole fic around what i think are some of her best and softest lyrics. the whole song aches of emotional codependency and possession but general fear around real defined love and thats what this fic is going to detail. this is my first chaptered klance fic and my first attempt at a chaptered fic in like 3 years so yeah lets go!!

 

  
“You know, you could’ve just gone with them.”

Lance’s words hung in the air a little longer than he was comfortable with, but it wasn’t to an unexpected degree. The cool breeze slipping into the musty apartment should’ve been a harsh reminder that the balcony door had been left ajar, but for the two occupants of the fifth floor residential, nothing was about to come close to breaking the thick silence between them. The room wasn’t tense; the cushion wide gap between them was voluntary as they leaned up against the base of the couch, toes woven in the white carpet and tailbones aching from the hardwood floor. The curtains framing the glass sliding doors were slapping the walls with the wind’s fury, and the hum of the radiator gave way to croaks and pops, but the boys sat, with all their aching bones, in a sort of unwavering contentedness. The house creaked a little. Keith took in a breath. Neither of them looked at each other.

The sound of windchimes twinkled in through the doorway, restless and melodic and it made Lance forget the reason why he bought them. His skin was cold and his hands looked pink and he was sure that if he looked at Keith’s they’d be blue. His lips probably would be too. Lance pushed that thought away.

When Keith finally replied, it took Lance a second to remember what he was responding to. The words fell from his throat gently, as if it wasn’t worn hoarse from earlier. “I want to be alone.” The wind picked up for a moment and tossed the windchimes against the building’s exterior with a thud. Neither of them moved from their spot, but they both fiddled; Lance with the skin around his fingernails and Keith with his lips. They both broke skin at the same time. Lance reflected on Keith’s words and wondered if he should leave.

“Alone with you.” Keith gulped but Lance didn’t hear, “If that makes sense.”

And it did.

Lance thought back to earlier that morning, when the sun had sought refuge behind rooftops and wove it’s light between distant skyscrapers. Keith’s skin had been too light for the contrast, and his cheekbones and forehead bounced back light like an illuminated stop sign. His hair had surrendered itself to the scarf tied tightly around his neck, locks of black colliding with the woven white material, only sparing his chin, which was barely submerged in the cloth. Lance had tapped several times on his phone screen, open to the camera, to get the lighting to adjust to the pink hues peeking over the skyline and capture the milky glow of Keith’s face. Said boy had to pop the kickstand down to keep the bike in place for each posed picture Lance took with him poised on the bike seat with both feet planted on the peddles, but neither of them minded, the candidness of their endeavors long abandoned. When the bike toppled sideways nevertheless, Keith’s jaw had turned green when it swabbed the grass in his fall, and his new shoes followed suit, leaving them a little more broken in than Keith had wanted, but at least he hadn’t dropped his thermos on the assfault. Lance had stood over him then, a foolish grin adorning his face, determined to smooth over Keith’s frown as he lay there, weeds in his hair and lip puffy and pouting.

Shortly after, Lance had picked a buttercup and held it below Keith’s jaw, the early morning sun leaving no trace of a yellow glow and Lance had yelled louder than he should’ve for such a sleepy neighborhood, but he had to accuse Keith of being a slanderer of butter, and Keith’s voice eventually matched his volume as he argued back. _The whole thing is stupid! It’s based in no logic, and I don’t hate butter!_ Lance hadn’t pushed back, observing Keith’s face enraged and serious, alongside his muddled hair and swollen lip, and yelling about butter and reason at an unearthly hour of the morning, tugging a red bike that’s color had faded down to the same shade of red that covered Keith’s chilled cheeks. And even though he may have lost the argument, it still felt like he had won.

Keith had chased down gulps of hot chocolate with bitter remarks about being lactose intolerant, and Lance had shrugged and told him that lactose hated him too. Keith had rolled his eyes.

It was a relatively cold day in what was shaping up to be an unusually cold summer. Granted, fall was steadily approaching, but still. Lance had seen the temperatures dipping into the thirties on the weather forecast and wasted no time in texting their group chat with demands that someone accompany him to an obscure suburban neighborhood the following day. He hadn’t wanted to think that Keith and him could be civil, but he had been the only one available then, and the only one dumb enough to agree to an “early morning” with Lance. Of course, had he known how early Lance had meant, he may have kindly passed.

Still, the offer itself had been intriguing. A photography project. Keith had known about Lance’s passion for photography, and always enjoyed the pieces he submitted to local competitions or got commissioned by local companies or to-be-weds. They were as tame as could be for the prompt or assignment, but they always had a very evident Lance flair.

But getting to be the subject of one? And an impromptu one at that? Eh, maybe he could put up with the 5:30am departure time.

“Do you think it could snow in the summer?” Lance had asked the sky, nose pink from the chilly air. Keith had stepped over to elbow him in the side, neary knocking him off the sidewalk and into the road, but Keith had quickly adjusted his nudge into a firm arm snagging Lance’s side and yanking him back into a balanced position. Lance had felt overwhelmed for a moment, since it all happened in such a quick succession, and it was rather unnecessary too, since there were no cars in the road at 6:15am. But Keith’s face resembled that of someone distraught, as if the threat of an actual accident had hovered over Lance for a fleeting second. Before Keith pulled his arm away, Lance noted that his jacket was slightly damp from the grass’s morning dew.

“It’s gonna be 60 degrees in like two hours. Plus, it’s a completely clear day with close to zero clouds. Think before you ask me dumb questions.” But there was no snark to Keith’s voice. Lance had smiled at the sky before letting his head tilt to smile at Keith. He smiled back.

There had always been this sort of understanding between Lance and Keith. An understanding that transcended their actual perceptions of it. They were comfortable together. And for now, that was all that mattered.

The apartment was getting colder by the minute and Lance feared that Keith was too, in nature and in temperature. Hunk and Pidge had been gone for an estimated 20 minutes.

Sitting in silence was a pastime Lance was gradually becoming better acquainted with. Making time for himself. Keith had once asked him to slow down. _You know moving fast all the time doesn’t help you, right? You can’t skip out on things and you obviously can’t bend time. If you move too fast now, things will just be slower in the future to make up for it. Common sense._ Lance hadn’t thought so. He just simply replied that his brain moved too fast for a change in pace. He’d rather watch life smear past in his peripheral than let it blow him over as it passed him by.

Wasting time was a bitter topic for Lance and weighed heavy on his conscience. The very concept laced him with anxiety and made his stomach sink. It had been his vice throughout school. The constant fear of getting thrown out of control by letting his life slip past him made him weary to spend time on work. Of course, he was just pinned as being a vigorous procrastinator, so for most of his life he had believed that his laziness was simply the cause. The ridicule and his misunderstanding of himself and the pressure that surrounded it all only made his anxiety worsen, and eventually he had to take medical leave from college, cutting his time there and his future in half. Therapy helped in settling his fears and self deprecation, but he knew that any disbelieving people who looked down on his abilities or coping mechanisms would in turn fuel his own underestimation of himself. Overcompensation was a byproduct of knowing he was capable but naturally failing at proving it. It was unhealthy and frankly annoying, but he was slowly getting better at trusting himself, and that was the most important thing to Lance.

Keith was comfortable. Keith was safe. Keith didn't ask for anything in return and didn't expect anything from Lance. He had quickly figured out where his emotional boundaries were without him ever addressing it. Just in nature Keith was pleasant. He understood. Lance didn’t realize he needed that in someone so much. Keith was validating, just in his presence. It meant the world to Lance. Sure, he was closer with Hunk or Pidge but this .. was different.

“I don’t think the heater is working.” Lance’s words dissipated into the air. He thought he saw Keith nod in his peripheral, but it could’ve been anything. Keith didn’t reply, but that was okay, since Lance was slowly learning to love the quiet.

**Author's Note:**

> thank u for giving this fic a chance! ill be updating as often as possible but itll be irregular as i only write when im really inspired. maybe once every two weeks. i’ll try and force myself to write for tho as this is a story i really want to tell and i love lance and keith’s dynamic more than anything. also, bonus, in this fic, keith didnt go to college and as it says, lance only went to half. theyre both in their early 20’s here. thanks again! (ps . this is unbetaed so pls comment any typos u see xxx)


End file.
